Hottest Marketing Stories of the Year (with Photos)

2010, what a year!

With 2011 right around the corner, let’s take a look back at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly marketing stories of the year:

The Good

Hyundai

Hyundai continued hammering its “value” message and developed innovative, consumer-centric marketing programs. Year to date U.S. auto sales shot up 45.2% and the automaker was able to increase U.S. market share from 3.8% to 4.7%. (Source: WSJ)

Skechers Shape-Ups

Who would of guessed? The aging shoe brand suddenly became hip again with its introduction of Shape-Ups. Shape-Ups control 56% of the fitness footwear market and have helped Skechers year-to-date sales jump nearly 37%.

Facebook

The social networking site continues its domination. According to Hitwise, 24.2% of U.S. page views took place on Facebook.com; such exposure has made fan pages and interaction on the site a de facto tool in every marketer’s toolbox.

Apple iPad

Apple has the Midas touch. The iPad was the biggest product of the year and it was Apple’s fastest-selling product at launch, ever. The brand grabbed an early lead in the emerging tablet industry, but it will be interesting to see if they will be able to maintain this dominance, or let others capture some of this value. (i.e. Android vs. iPhone)

The Bad

Gap

The retailer caved into pressure to revert to the old logo when they unexpectedly introduced a new logo that looked like it was created using WordArt. Who knew that many people still cared about the struggling brand.

Domino’s

Domino’s took a huge risk with their “Pizza Turnaround” campaign where they admitted that their pizza tasted awful. It paid off in the short term, but I believe it will do irreparable harm to their brand in the long run. After an initial boost in sales in the 1st Quarter, sales declined 4.9% in Q2 and another 4.1% in Q3.

Conan O’Brien

They giveth and they taketh away. Shortly after giving Conan O’Brien the desk on “The Tonight Show”, NBC booted the host in order to accommodate Jay Leno. The move made NBC look like an ass, but has helped Conan and Team CoCo reach an all-time level in popularity.

The Ugly

BP

Talk about a disaster…the oil spill was bad enough, but BP’s handling of the crisis will provide a nice case study of what not to do. Comments such as “I’d like to get my life back” from then-CEO Tony Hayward certainly didn’t help public opinion.

LeBron James

The city of Cleveland’s love affair with LeBron James quickly soured when the superstar announced he would be taking his talents to South Beach.